TONASKET – Tonasket’s girls soccer team picked up a win it needed to have on Thursday, Sept. 27, defeating Chelan at home, 2-0.

The game was originally scheduled to be played at Chelan, but persistent air quality problems related to fires throughout Central Washington forced the teams to switch locations of their home-and-home series.

Alicia Edwards scored in the 15th minute of the first half, and the Tigers held that lead until the final minute of play, when Kelly Cruz drilled home the second goal from the top of the box.

“We passed the ball great today,” said Tonasket coach Darren Collins. “Because of the defense they played we needed to move the ball well, try to switch fields, and it got us a lot of shots. We just didn’t finish many of them.

“We didn’t play that way at Brewster. If we’d played like this, whether we’d have beaten them or not, that would have been a very different game.”

The Tigers outshot the Goats 19-5, and goalkeeper Baylie Tyus was challenged only once on her three saves.

Chelan kept things close, though, with a packed-in defense that made it tough for the Tigers to create much space on offense. But by winning the possession battle, Tonasket ensured there were few Chelan threats to manage.

“Now we just need to work on coming out with the right attitude every game and get more consistent,” Collins said. “We can beat most teams when we do that, but we can lose to anyone if we let up at all.”

There will be no room for letting up at as the Tigers host defending state runner-up Cashmere on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

After that, most of the rest of the season will be one long road trip for the Tigers, who play six of their final eight games on the road.

Myra Gaytan (15) clears the ball out of potential trouble during the Tigers’ win over Chelan on Sept. 27.

The Tigers’ Kathryn Cleman (11) heads the ball to a teammate for a near-assist during Thursday’s 2-0 victory over Chelan as Jaden Vugteveen (2) looks on.

Tonasket’s Sarina McBride tries to beat a Chelan defender to the ball.

About Brent Baker

Brent, is a former reporter/photographer for the Gazette-Tribune and now works as a freelance sports reporter for the G-T and owns and operates his own high school sports website OK Valley Sports. (See it online at okvalleysports.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/OK-Valley-Sports/172342412808987?fref=nf). Prior to working at the G-T, he was the sports editor for Sunrise Publishing from 2000-2005 in Michigan. He subsequently owned and operated Buckland Media, a high school sports website, in Michigan until 2010. He and his wife Kim, who have an adult son, moved to Tonasket in 2010. Brent worked as a full time reporter/photographer at the G-T from 2011 - 2014).

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